Antarctic ice shelf half the size of Scotland on verge of collapse

This picture shows part of the WIlkins ice shelf as it began to break apart. Jim Elliott/British Antarctic Survey/AP

A huge ice shelf in the Antarctic is in the last stages of collapse and could break up within days in the latest sign of how global warming is thought to be changing the face of the planet.

The enormous Wilkins ice shelf is now barely attached to land. The latest reports show that a thin sliver of ice attaching it to the Antarctic's Charcot Island is rapidly collapsing and threatening to break.

The Wilkins shelf is about half the size of Scotland, or the same size as the US state of Connecticut. It is the largest slab of ice so far to disintegrate and retreat in the Antarctic. Pictures from the European Space Agency show that fresh rifts have appeared in Wilkins' 'ice bridge' to Charcot Island and that a large chunk of ice has broken away, though the shelf still remains attached to other pieces of land. ESA estimated that the loss of the ice bridge could see the northern half of Wilkins break free, representing up to 1,400 square miles of ice floating off on the ocean in a gigantic ice berg.

Though the collapse of Wilkins shelf will not raise sea levels directly - as ice shelves float on the sea surface - its demise is a warning sign of potentially disastrous changes in the earth's climate. Change at Wilkins has come fast, often taking scientists by surprise with the speed of the break-up. In February last year a 164- square-mile chunk broke off. Then in May another slab of ice, this time measuring 62 square miles, fell away. The ice shelf has lost a total of 694 square miles over the past 12 months, representing some 14 per cent of its size. That shrank the vital ice bridge to just 984 yards at its narrowest location. Now that bridge too is coming under huge strains.

The news comes hot on the heels of the release of a survey by British and American researchers warning of the perilous state of Antarctic ice shelves and fast melting glaciers, and laying the blame firmly on global warming.